Miscellaneous

Audrey Smith Kilar’s Birthday Anniversary. Grandma K would have been 86 years old on August 25th. She taught me how to read, how to enjoy books, and how to put up with a spouse for 50 years. My fondest memories of Grandma involve her playfully arguing with Grandpa. At the time I hated how she forced me to read and eat vegetables, but she helped make me who I am today. I still hate Brussel sprouts.

Gabriel Jose Kilar starting kindergarten. In related news, my favorite nephew, Gabe celebrated his fifth birthday anniversary AND started kindergarten this week! He started kindergarten at the same school Rissa started back in 2001.

RIP Neil Armstrong (Aug 5, 1930 – Aug 25, 2012)

RIP Neil Armstrong. I do not blog or Facebook about the death of celebrities, but I do so for heroes. Neil Armstrong is a real American hero. The world is better for having been graced by Neil and his service to this great nation. God speed, Neil Armstrong.

Food

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body. — Cicero

Honey Bunny’s bulgogi

Bulgogi. Honey Bunny’s bulgogi is awesome! She modified her old recipe ever so slightly and achieved perfection!

Gulab jamun, Honey Bunny Cafe

Gulab jamun. Korean food for dinner, Indian food for dessert. Again, simply awesome! She nailed it on the first attempt!

Kobe beef “sushi” roll

Kobe beef “sushi”. We are two of the last customers at Origami Sushi of Santa Clarita. The sushi joint was just bought out by some madman that would rather sell stale, dry chicken wings. Half the menu was not available during the transition, so I just tried their gimmicky kobe beef roll and free samples of the new owner’s nasty chicken wings.

Lamb tikka masala, Tandoori Grill

The lamb tikka masala was very good, but it does not compare to the India Oven of San Antonio, Texas or Minerva Cuisine of Chantilly, Virginia. This is to be expected, because pretty much everything in California SUCKS compared to the real world.

Speaking of things sucking in California, I only recommend Vincenzo’s Pizza if you are going with a large group of friends. The pizza is not great, but the restaurant is good at accommodating large groups.

For good pizza, go to Pitfire Artisan Pizza in North Hollywood. It. Is. Awesome!

Cyber

Samsung owes Apple a bazillion dollars! Uh-oh. It looks like I chose the losing side. Apple won the billion-dollar lawsuit against Samsung. Frankly, I do not see the similarities whatsoever. Okay, maybe. If you have ever been to Korea, then you know that Koreans are very good at copying other designs. Japan has Mitsubishi (three diamonds); Korea has Samsung (three stars). America has 7-up; Korea has Chilsung (7 stars). Let us not forget the countless Nike and Coach ripoffs in Korea. Maybe Samsung can counter-sue if Apple uses the same Taiwanese processor as the Galaxy S III in the iPhone 5.

Android phones in space. In related news, NASA plans on using Samsung Nexus One phones on PhoneSat 1.0 in 2013 [LINK]. If it were not so dadgum expensive and cumbersome to program for the iOS, maybe NASA would switch to the iPhone instead. NASA might not have a choice but to switch platforms for upcoming PhoneSat missions if Samsung goes broke.

Mmmm…jelly beans. In more related news, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean should hit the streets officially by the end of the month [LINK]. In the past, I would have rooted my phone and tried out Jelly Bean a few weeks ago. I learned my lesson with the last phone, and I will wait.

Cyberwar “Plan X” looks to make war planning as easy as 1-2-3. DARPA is soliciting inputs on how to make cyberwar routine with “Plan X” [LINK]. With a sexy name like that, it is doomed for failure.

“Plan X” aims to solve both problems simultaneously, by automatically constructing mission plans that are as easy to execute as “the auto-pilot function in modern aircraft,” but contain “formal methods to provably quantify the potential battle damage from each synthesized mission plan.”

The way I see it, America is too dependent on technology to solve all its problems at the push of a button. I disagree that technology is the key to cyberwarfare. Warfare in any domain is dependent upon the skill of the warrior, the people behind the technology. This reminds me of the JSpOC–one technology suite to rule them all. Warfare does not work on technology alone.

The US is conducting cyber attacks in Afghanistan: Two goats and an alpaca injured by Stuxnet virus. In case you were wondering, the United States admitted to conducting cyber attacks in Afghanistan [LINK]. I had no idea that Afghanistan had a sophisticated enough cyber infrastructure to brag about attacking. What are we talking about here? A Tandy TRS-80 connected to an 800 baud modem?

(Cubicle) Engineering

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. — Unknown.

Switchblade Mini-UAS

2007-08-14 DAEDALUS

AFSOC, like U2 (the band), still hasn’t found what they are looking for. Seeing the new Switchblade drone was interesting. I can remember comparing notes with Aerovironment back in 2007 when they were trying to boost the loiter time of the PUMA and Raven. Years after we shared our notes with them, they still cannot hit the loiter time benchmark that we set. I guess the Switchblade wins because it capable of kamikaze attack. I could use one of these in my current job…

Martial Arts

UFC fans have a bone to pick with Bones Jones. How about that Jon “Bones” Jones causing UFC 151 to be cancelled by not accepting the replacement challenge with Chael Sonnen [LINK]? If Jones wants to assert himself as the best pound-for-pound fighter, he should accept all challengers, as Anderson Silva would.

7 days to Gator football! I have been counting down the top 100 Gators based on the following factors: Gator Ring of Honor, University of Florida Athletic Association Hall of Fame (Gator Great), All American, national awards (Heisman, Draddy, etc) All SEC, conference awards, and school awards. Ties went to members of national or conference championship teams. Mitigating factors were considered for all-time greats from the beginning of Gator football in 1906 to the beginning of the modern epoch in 1980. This week’s Gators 6-14:

6. Wilber Marshall

7. Urban Meyer

8. Ray Graves

9. Rex Grossman

10. Errict Rhett

11. Wes Chandler

12. Fred Taylor

13. John Reaves

14. Carlos Alvarez

Big Blue

I have decided to stop complaining about work in public, so this section will probably be deleted. Trust me, it was about seven days of Monday. Aim High! Fly, fight, and win! Assholes…

Movies

The Raid: Redemption

The Raid: Redemption. You pretty much get the entire plot by reading the DVD cover, but the movie is still awesome. It is well-paced, and delights the audience with a few twists and turns, including a decent subplot of rookie police officer finding a lost brother on the other side of the law. Great martial arts choreography, decent character development for an Asian martial arts movie, and good soundtrack. Honestly, the fighting gets repetitive. Everyone in the movie seems to know the same dozen moves of Muay Thai or Silat. Despite that small flaw, the choreography is still amazing. The movie is not innovative, but it is efficient at entertaining the audience with no frills action and straight-to-the-point choreography and plot development. 5/5.